Program providers supply content to viewers over various communications networks. Such content may include videos streamed, for example, over the Internet and received at a browser. Content also may include broadcast video (i.e., television). Content may be accessed using a browser or a television receiver. Content also may be accessed using an application on a mobile device. Other content and other content distribution methods are possible.
Program providers and sponsors may be interested in knowing what content segments are accessed or viewed (i.e., “viewing history”). In the context of television viewing, a determination of viewing history is manageable. However, in the context of video streamed over the Internet, identifying which videos are being viewed, or that have been viewed, and associated metrics data such as number of views, is becoming increasingly difficult to the point of being unmanageable because of the very large and ever-growing video libraries available on the Internet. As these video libraries increase in size, traditional metering solutions become intractable.
Furthermore, proliferation of the number and types of media devices capable of accessing and displaying streaming videos has compounded the problems inherent in traditional metering since one aspect of metering involves installing a meter on each media device.
Finally, streaming video systems may use encryption to prevent unwanted or unauthorized access to videos. One such encryption system is a public key encryption system, widely used to add security to, for example, data packets, including video data packets transmitted over the Internet between a server and a client. Current meters, which are intermediary between the server and client, are not able to decrypt the data packets, making identity of the videos difficult or impossible.